Assured Destruction
|next = |season = 3 |number = 3 }}"Assured Destruction" is the third episode of the third season of The Expanse. Overall, it is the twenty-sixth episode. It aired on April 25, 2018. Synopsis Earth strategizes a costly ploy to gain advantage in the war against Mars; struggles to convince to do the right thing; and seek refuge aboard the Rocinante.SyFy Press release posted on SpoilerTV April 2, 2018 Recap On the Rocinante, Avasarala is unconscious in the med bay recovering from the recent trauma escaping the UN Ship. Bobbie confronts the crew about vandalization/defacement of the MCR flag. interrupts the conversation to tell everyone that they are luckily off everyone’s radar at the moment and will continue towards Io. Holden tells Bobbie, they will fix the Razorback’s communication capabilities so they can be on their way and that’s all he owes her and Avasarala. When Avasarala awakes, she summons Holden for a conversation where she suggests sending out a few select messages to people in the UN, which Holden thinks is a bad idea. Chrisjen Avasarala shares the intel about her plan to bring Jules-Pierre Mao in to testify against Errinwright for the conspiracy to create protomolecule hybrids. Holden reveals that they battled one of the hybrids and defeated it. Prax explains the significance of Io to the protomolecule project and the connection to his daughter and the children of Ganymede. Amos indicates he'd destroy the Io site after rescuing the children. Holden and Nagata reveal the Belt has the protomolecule and Chisjen criticizes them for that. Alex catches Naomi looking up Tycho station on the maps from the cockpit of the Razorback as she considers her options to leave the crew on that heading. Alex confronts her and extends an olive branch. Avasarala also attempts to make peace with Nagata but Naomi does not trust her and tells her that she can see through the deputy undersecretary to recognize a motivation to secure a protomolecule sample for Earth. The both conclude that they won't be friends. On the UN drop ship escaped from Guanshiyin, and Theo the tech, receive notice they are to be rescued by the Agatha King. Theo, who is unclear what he should say to the captors, asks for guidance. Cotyar misdirects Theo’s attention away from himself so he can strangle/break Theo’s neck, understanding Theo would be quick to tell his captors the entire story. who commands the battle ship the Agatha King, gets word that will soon be arriving. Once Nguyễn does arrive, Souther offers him command of the ship, which he declines. His first action is to interrogate Cotyar who is in a med bay of the ship recovering. Not getting much information, Nguyễn leaves the interrogation upset. Later, Souther arranges a few calculated power outages, so he can see Cotyar in person without Nguyễn present. Cotyar discusses nefarious actions the cabal, lead by Errinwright, are committing. Nguyễn senses Souther's subterfuge and relinquishes him of command over the Agatha King and, when Souther hesitates, Nguyễn further threatens to relinquish him of duty. On Earth, and are discussing if they should take preemptive strikes against the five MCRN stealth retaliatory stations near Earth that could launch nuclear destruction down upon Earth. Gillis is not convinced this is the best course of action so, giving himself more time to consider, he postpones his decision of a preemptive strike until all five bases are identified. Errinwright is upset that Gillis has not given the go ahead to strike right away. When all five locations are found, having listened to counsel and heard the success odds projection, he initially calls for a stand-down. Gillis is proud of this decision but, Errinwright continues to prod the Sec-Gen's vanity until Gillis reverses his decision and thus gives the order to execute the railgun attack. All five outposts are decimated; however, before the last outpost is destroyed, it releases a missile that carries its own MIRV salvo of nuclear missiles. Once the missile reaches Earth’s orbit, it releases all of its nuclear missiles, a majority of those missiles are quickly destroyed by Earths planetary defenses before achieving landfall. A single nuclear missile penetrates the defense, striking in South America and detonating. Errinwright seizes on the connection between the delayed railgun problem and the nuclear detonation on South America in order to assign fault to Gillis for his earlier decision to delay. Errinwright relays this blame to Anna, who is disgusted. On Io, exhibits some new-found strength to the amusement of the other children*, leaping and scaling the tunnels and corridors of the moon's repurposed old Helium-3 mine. Strickland says that interactions between the kids decreased cortisol levels which increases protomolecule absorption. Katoa, who seems to be ok is suddenly taken over by the protomolecule and convulses spasmodically in front of everyone as looks on via video monitor. Jules-Pierre who earlier saw a picture of his daughter (infected by the protomolecule on Eros) and then encountered the young (who is looking for her daddy), decides to end the experiment on children on Io. Strickland protests the action but, Jules-Pierre declares the subject closed. Cast Main *Steven Strait as *Dominique Tipper as *Cas Anvar as *Wes Chatham as *Frankie Adams as *Shohreh Aghdashloo as Guest Starring *Terry Chen as Praxideke Meng *Nick E. Tarabay as *François Chau as *Byron Mann as *Ted Atherton as Lawrence Strickland *Jaeden Noel as *Natalie Lisinska as Shaffer https://twitter.com/natalielisinska/status/989904303925157889 Actress declares her role in show *Morgan Kelly as Lieutenant Mancuso *Elizabeth Mitchell as Co-starring * Alex Castillo as Captain Espinoza * Danijel Mandic as AK Guard * David Tompa as Theo Simibelli * Jeremy Crittenden as Medical Tech #2 * Jonathan Whittaker as * Leah Jung as * Martin Roach as * Nicole Stamp as Medical Tech * Shawn Ahmed as Lieutenant Boyer * Supinder Wraich as Media |-|Images= File:3x03 1.jpg File:3x03 2.jpg File:3x03 3.jpg File:3x03 4.jpg File:3x03 5.jpg File:3x03 6.jpg File:3x03 7.jpg File:3x03 8.jpg File:3x03 9.jpg File:3x03 10.jpg File:3x03 11.jpg File:3x03 12.jpg File:3x03 13.jpg File:3x03 13.jpg File:3x03 14.jpg File:3x03 15.jpg File:3x03 16.jpg File:3x03 17.jpg File:3x03 18.jpg File:3x03 19.jpg File:3x03 20.jpg File:3x03 21.jpg File:3x03 22.jpg File:3x03 23.jpg File:3x03 24.jpg File:3x03 25.jpg File:3x03 26.jpg File:3x03 27.jpg File:3x03 28.jpg File:3x03 29.jpg |-|Videos= Notes * This was the first episode where Jeremy Benning was not the Director of Photography. * Main cast opening credit dissolve animation was altered in this episode. * On-screen, during the communication from him to Souther before arrival aboard Agatha King, Nguyen's first initial was given as "G." This is inconsistent with both the books and his nameplate in s2e9, Weeping Somnambulist. It should be "A." * In the lab on Io, Jules-Pierre glances over at a monitor that flashes images of his daughter Julie infected by the protomolecule. Alongside that image, an image of a fully-infected Katoa appears; however, at the moment, Katoa's infection had not reached that level. Trivia * MIRV is an acronym for Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle, which refers to a delivery device, such as a missile, which contains multiple warheads usually of a thermonuclear variety. The terminology is a holdover from President Ronald Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative or its more common name "The Star Wars Program". * A pinnace is a small boat which is part of a larger ship. Cast credits on-screen S03E03-MidrollCredits 00.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 01.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 02.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 03.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 04.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 05.jpg S03E03-MidrollCredits 06.jpg S03E03-ClosingCredits 00.jpg Category:Season 3